Lost
Splendor: The Amazing Memoirs of the Man Who Killed Rasputinby Prince Felix Youssoupoff
The fascinating first-person account of the cross-dressing prince who
poisoned Rasputin with rose cream cakes laced with cyanide and spiked Madeira
is now back in print. Originally published in France in 1952, during the
years of Prince Youssoupoff's exile from Russia, Lost Splendor has all
the excitement of a thriller. Born to great riches, lord of vast feudal
estates and many palaces, Felix Youssoupoff led the life of a grand seigneur
in the days before the Russian Revolution. Married to the niece of Czar
Nicholas II, he could observe at close range the rampant corruption and
intrigues of the imperial court, which culminated in the rise to power
of the sinister monk Rasputin. Finally, impelled by patriotism and his
love for the Romanoff dynasty, which he felt was in danger of destroying
itself and Russia, he killed Rasputin in 1916 with the help of the Grand
Duke Dimitri and others. More than any other single event, this deed helped
to bring about the cataclysmic upheaval that ended in the advent of the
Soviet regime.~The author describes the luxury and glamour of his upbringing,
fantastic episodes at nightclubs and with the gypsies in St. Petersburg,
grand tours of Europe, dabbling in spiritualism and occultism, and an occasional
conscience-stricken attempt to alleviate the lot of the poor.~Prince Youssoupoff
was an aristocrat of character. When the moment for action came, when the
monk's evil influence over the czar and czarina became unbearable, he and
his friends decided that they must get rid of the monster. He tells how
Rasputin courted him and tried to hypnotize him, and how finally they decoyed
him to the basement of the prince's palace. Prince Youssoupoff...is perfectly
objective, remarkably modern and as accurate as human fallibility allows.
His book is therefore readable, of historical value and intimately tragic.
It is as if Count Fersen had written a detailed account of the last years
of Marie Antoinette. --Harold Nicholson, on the first English edition,
1955
Hardcover from Helen Marx Books

The
Rasputin Fileby Edvard Radzinsky
Rasputin, one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of
the twentieth century, has remained cloaked in the myth of his own devising
since his extraordinary ascent to power in the court of Nicholas and Alexandra,
the last tsar and tsarina of Russia. Until now.

Edvard Radzinsky, the author of the international bestseller The Last
Tsar, had long been frustrated by the meager explanations of the malign
authority of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, a Russian peasant, semiliterate
monk, and mystic, in the last Romanov court. Then, in 1995, a file from
the State Archives that had been missing for years came up for auction
at Sotheby's, and was put in Radzinsky's hands. It contained the interrogations
of Rasputin's inner circle of admirers and those who kept him under police
surveillance--documents never seen by any other historian. With this file,
Radzinsky is able to transform the biography of Rasputin from mysterious
legend into fact.

Using the depositions of Rasputin's friends, teachers, devotees, and
fanatical female fans--the people who watched Rasputin nearly every day--Radzinsky
presents a fascinating account of how Rasputin exercised and enlarged his
power. Radzinsky reveals the full extent of Rasputin's charged relationship
with the tsarina, and chronicles Rasputin's famous sexual odyssey through
the demimonde of St. Petersburg, using the debauched women's own astonishingly
frank testimony to uncover a trove of surprising secrets. Here is documented,
for the first time, the way in which Rasputin actually gained access to
the tsarist court, and the true identity of the man who shot and killed
Rasputin in 1916. And finally, the author is able to provide the real reasons
behind Rasputin's sway in virtually every imperial decision at the end
of Russia's royal Romanov dynasty.

Through his exclusive access to the Rasputin File, his own unrivaled
research into other resources, and his proven talent for dramatic storytelling,
Radzinsky is finally able to tell the complete, sensational story of Rasputin,
fully documented and definitive. Amazon.comHardcover - 512 pages (March 14, )Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd); ISBN: 0385489099

Rasputin:
The Saint Who Sinnedby Brian Moynahan
British journalist and historian Brian Moynahan does not spare details
of the lechery and drunkenness that Rasputin brought with him on his journey
from the squalor of rural Siberia to St. Petersburg, where he captivated
the tsar and tsarina with his mysterious ability to ease their hemophiliac
son's hemorrhages. Yet Moynahan also credits "the mad monk" with intelligence,
generosity, even a weird spirituality. In elegant prose, he retells with
panache the saga of an illiterate peasant's rise to a position of fearsome
power in the waning days of the Russian monarchy. Amazon.comThe New York Times panned this book as sensationalised and error-prone.
Paperback - 400 pages 1 edition Da Capo Pr; ISBN: 0306809303